Top News

2/3/2015

A proposal by Gov. Peter Shumlin would cut $1.7 million from the Community High School of Vermont’s budget next year by closing a number of the field offices that support the high school completion program offered within the Department of Corrections.

A trial to determine whether School Resource Officers at Birmingham high schools should be allowed to use pepper spray to control disorderly students will go into its third week. The lawsuit claims the officers are quick to use the chemical weapon despite its harmful effects, especially for individuals with asthma or similar conditions.

South Dakota's House Appropriations Committee approved a proposal to offer tuition assistance to certain rural school employees to get teaching degrees in South Dakota if they agree to teach in their same school district for 5 years.

A House Education Committee will take discuss a bill that would give Seattle Mayor Ed Murray the power to appoint two of the seven members of the school board. Lawmakers will consider the bill one week before they take up another proposal — a bill that would split Seattle Public Schools into two districts.

Legislation that would allow people with concealed-gun permits to carry firearms into public schools and government meetings won approval from the Wyoming House of Representatives. The bill would repeal “gun-free zones” carved out around elementary and secondary schools, as well as colleges and universities.

2/2/2015

The boards of education in all 173 school districts have approved a policy raising the dropout age from 16 to 18. The Kentucky Department of Education provided each district with a $10,000 grant to plan for implementation of the higher dropout age.

A showdown over state testing is intensifying, with the Illinois State Board of Education threatening to pull as much as hundreds of millions of dollars from school districts that don't administer the new PARCC assessment exam to students.

Wisconsin school districts buy plenty of local produce for their lunchrooms but could do better in buying local dairy products, according to a new U.S. Department of Agriculture survey. The census also shows 59 percent of the 315 districts that responded are involved in the Farm to School program.

State legislators gave initial approval to a proposal that would allow districts that are not a full K12 to continue operating if the enrollment per grade is proportionate to 100 for K12. The first beneficiary would be the Big Stone City's K8 school.

As Gov. Scott Walker is set to propose a $19 million increase in money for rural schools, education officials believe it doesn't go far enough to help struggling districts in less populated parts of the state.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, who opposes Common Core academic standards, has no legal authority over Louisiana's Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. He has instead used an executive order to issue a strong suggestion for testing alternatives, rather than a requirement for other assessment options.

The proposed HBl 868 bill, titled the Teacher's Protection Act, would give teachers the right to use deadly force on campus, on a school bus or at school-sponsored activities to defend not only themselves and students, but school property.

1/30/2015

State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli's Fiscal Stress Monitoring System designated 90 school districts statewide, which is 13 percent of districts, as fiscally stressed. Statewide, this second year of scoring designated 10 school districts in "significant fiscal stress," 27 in "moderate fiscal stress" and 53 as "susceptible to fiscal stress."